


King of the Rock

by Azdaema



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin
Genre: Casterly Rock, Family Feels, Gen, Pre-Canon, casterly rock childhood is what i live for
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-03
Updated: 2019-07-03
Packaged: 2020-06-03 06:44:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 532
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19458544
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Azdaema/pseuds/Azdaema
Summary: The Lannister cousins play King of the Rock.





	King of the Rock

**Author's Note:**

> I pruned this from a larger Tywin/Joanna fic I'm working on. I wanted to start with a prologue—"Joanna was Genna's favorite cousin long before she was Tywin's,"—but I got a little off track, and I think this scene works better as a standalone.

The day after Genna's betrothal, the castle is still full bannermen and their children. Usually Genna would be happy to play with them, but today she rejects them out of hand. Everyone is an enemy today, and no one more so than the lesser houses. Today it is only the siblings and the innermost cousins going up to play in the bailey of the ringfort, up on the peak of the Rock. 

The Casterlys' old fortifications, built in the Age of Heros, are enigmatically small in comparison to all later structures. It's something out of a bygone time, out of children's stories, and an excellent place for children to play when it's not be used as a watchtower.

Usually, Tywin refuses to play such games, but today Genna gives him the most forlorn look and he obliges.

They play King of the Rock—a make-believe game, but only just barely; close enough to reality that Tywin can inhabit his role without it feeling like a farce.

Joanna is proclaimed Lady of the Rock without question. Tywin already knew this after some fashion, but as he does not usually play with them, he had never before noticed quite so _acutely_ how the others defer to her as the oldest female cousin.

At first Tywin objects—Genna ought to be Lady of the Rock, after all, today more than ever—but Genna shakes her head.

It is a moment before he understands.

His sister is not him. While he experiences their powerlessness as children in the form of chafing anger, Genna experiences it as uncertainty and fear. She would be content to a child for the time being if only those older and more powerful than her were to fulfill their duties and protect her. This is _his_ power fantasy, but it is his little sister's _protection_ fantasy. She is little, and wants only to be allowed to be so a while longer, with her big brother and big sister-cousin protecting her.

And so Tywin hugs Genna, proclaiming her a daughter of the Rock. He nods to Joanna, confirming her role, and then the two of them set about delegating roles for everyone else.

The rest of them fall into their roles easily. Tyg is a knight. Kevan is Hand.

(Tywin is about to protest that Hand of the King was a post created by Aegon the Conqueror, and the Kings of the Rock never had them, but Joanna nods, approving Kevan's appointment, then leans over and whispers in Tywin's ear, "I can already _hear_ our maester scolding us—‘Kings is the Rock didn't have Hands.’" She says it with relish; today is a day for spiting all adults, down to their maesters. If it is vengeance—and if he is not alone surrounded by fools who do not know better—Tywin thinks he can abide it.)

Baby Gerion crows "Lion!" insistently, and becomes petulant when they try to coax him otherwise, and so they give in and let him be a literal lion. Damon and Stafford are generals, and Joanna's little sisters become her ladies in waiting, until they tire of that and join Gerion as literal lions, roaring and attacking everyone's ankles.


End file.
